… And the world without religion… Religions of the World…

The Sistine Chapel “ When the tried oldster drew near to his last hour, having fought the good fight and kept the faith, his heart was still young enough not to have forgotten that fear and trembling which chastened the youth, which the man indeed held in check, but which no man quite outgrows … except as he might succeed at the earliest opportunity in going further.” -Soren Kierkegaard

“’ Why did you come?’ ‘ The musk of your wine was in the air.’ ‘ What is your intention?’ ‘ Friendship.’ ‘ What do you want from me?’ ‘ Grace.’ Then you asked, ‘Where have you been most comfortable?’ ‘ In the place.’ ‘ What did you see there?’ ‘ Amazing things.’ ‘ Then why is it so desolate?’ ‘ Because all that can be taken away in a second.’ ‘ Who can do that.’ ‘ This clear discernment.’ ‘ Where can you live safely then?’ ‘ In surrender.’ ‘ What is this giving up?’ ‘ A peace that saves us.’ ‘ Is there no threat of disaster?’ ‘ Only what comes in your street, inside your love.’ ‘ How do you walk there?’ ‘ In perfection’.” -Jelaluddin Rumi

At midnight the would-be ascetic announced: ‘ This is the time to give up my home and seek for God. Ah, who has held me so long in delusion here?’ God whispered, ‘I’, but the ears of the man were stopped. With a baby asleep at her breast lay his wife, peacefully sleeping on one side of the bed. The man said, ‘Who are ye that have fooled me so long?’ The voice said again, ‘They are God,’ but he heard it not. The baby cried out in its dream, nestling close to its mother. God commanded, ‘Stop, fool, leave not thy home,’ but still he heard not. God sighed and complained, ‘Why does my servant wander to seek me, forsaking me?’

‘ Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night we drink and we drink…’ -Paul Celan

They try to say what you are, spiritual or sexual. They wonder about Solomon and all his wives. In the body of the world, they say, there is a soul and you are that. But we have ways within each other that will never be said by anyone. -Jelaluddin Rumi